Chapter 119 He had to stay

VALERIE

I woke in a faint mist. There was nothing around me but white. And in the distance, four shapes were coming closer, breaking through the tiffany clouds.

Somehow, I knew I was meant to be with them. I trudged through the fog, my feet taking into a run as the shapes of them began to appear in the mist.

My parents.

Mathilda.

Ava.

They smiled, their arms extended, waiting for me to walk right into them. But I could not reach. It seemed no matter how far I ran, I could not get any closer to them. They grew further and further away, and then they disappeared entirely. They disappeared into the fog, like shapes erased from paper.

“Wait!” I cried out. “Wait for me!”

But they were gone. And I was alone, in that white, empty world.

I crumbled to my knees and cried. “I don’t want to be alone. Don’t leave me alone.”

Then I felt something with in me. A warmth.

You are not alone, that familiar voice said.

I ignored her, sobbing into my knees instead. I had been so close to them